The Princess on the pea
Once
there
was
a
Prince
who
wanted
to
marry
a
Princess
.
Only
a
real
one
would
do
.
So
he
traveled
through
all
the
world
to
find
her
,
and
everywhere
things
went
wrong
.
There
were
Princesses
aplenty
,
but
how
was
he
to
know
whether
they
were
real
Princesses
?
There
was
something
not
quite
right
about
them
all
.
So
he
came
home
again
and
was
unhappy
,
because
he
did
so
want
to
have
a
real
Princess
.
One
evening
a
terrible
storm
blew
up
.
It
lightened
and
thundered
and
rained
.
It
was
really
frightful
!
In
the
midst
of
it
all
came
a
knocking
at
the
town
gate
.
The
old
King
went
to
open
it
.
Who
should
be
standing
outside
but
a
Princess
,
and
what
a
sight
she
was
in
all
that
rain
and
wind
.
Water
streamed
from
her
hair
down
her
clothes
into
her
shoes
,
and
ran
out
at
the
heels
.
Yet
she
claimed
to
be
a
real
Princess
.
"
We
'll
soon
find
that
out
,
"
the
old
Queen
thought
to
herself
.
Without
saying
a
word
about
it
she
went
to
the
bedchamber
,
stripped
back
the
bedclothes
,
and
put
just
one
pea
in
the
bottom
of
the
bed
.
Then
she
took
twenty
mattresses
and
piled
them
on
the
pea
.
Then
she
took
twenty
eiderdown
feather
beds
and
piled
them
on
the
mattresses
.
Up
on
top
of
all
these
the
Princess
was
to
spend
the
night
.
In
the
morning
they
asked
her
,
"
Did
you
sleep
well
?
"
"
Oh
!
"
said
the
Princess
.
"
No
.
I
scarcely
slept
at
all
.
Heaven
knows
what
's
in
that
bed
.
I
lay
on
something
so
hard
that
I
'm
black
and
blue
all
over
.
It
was
simply
terrible
.
"
They
could
see
she
was
a
real
Princess
and
no
question
about
it
,
now
that
she
had
felt
one
pea
all
the
way
through
twenty
mattresses
and
twenty
more
feather
beds
Nobody
but
a
Princess
could
be
so
delicate
.
So
the
Prince
made
haste
to
marry
her
,
because
he
knew
he
had
found
a
real
Princess
.
As
for
the
pea
,
they
put
it
in
the
museum
.
There
it
's
still
to
be
seen
,
unless
somebody
has
taken
it
.
There
,
that
's
a
true
story
.